Month: July 2017

Goodreads Monday was started by Lauren’s Page Turners. You just have to show off a book on your TBR list.

My choice this week is First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy.

It started for pranks, fun, and forever memories.A secret society – for the four of us. The rules: Never lie. Never tell. Love each other.We made the pledge and danced under the blood moon on the meteorite in the orchard. In the spot we found the dead girl five years earlier. And discovered the ancient drawings way before that. Nothing could break the four of us apart – I thought.But then, others wanted in. Our seaside town had secrets. History.We wanted revenge.We broke the rules. We lied. We told. We loved each other too much, not enough, and in ways we weren’t supposed to. Our invention ratcheted out of control.What started as a secret society, ended as justice. Revenge. Death. Rebellion.

Choose 12 bloggers to tag and include a link to their latest post, so others can check them out and meet new people.

Answer all 12 questions in The Challenge Questions section, but replace the 12th question with your own new one around telling the truth or revealing something interesting about yourself — you can leave the existing if you can’t think of something. (comment your answers to my question below before you change and post)

Make sure to add your own DARE to your tagged guests at the bottom of the post!

If you haven’t been tagged, but you want to play along, you can totally jump on in and post responses to the tag on your blog.

Include these rules when you copy/paste to your own post.

TRUTH: Answer the challenge questions as truthful as possible!

OR

DARE: If you choose not to accept the tag, you have to follow through on whatever dare the person who tags you chooses.

My dare to you is to read the book that has been on your tbr list the longest.

QUESTION 1:You’re on your way to a birthday dinner that your friends have thrown for you. When you arrive, your favorite author is having dinner by himself or herself and asks you to sit with them, before you even see your friends or they see you. You have two choices: (1) You can sit with the author but can’t tell your friends that you’ve abandoned them for three hours, or (2) Meet your friends and lose the only chance you’ll ever have to talk with the author. Pick one or the other — no exceptions or communication to your friends to tell them about the author — and explain why.

That’s a tough one for me. I would hate to abandon my friends, but my closest friends would totally get it and would forgive me. I’m terrible at making decisions and I’m not really sure what I would do. I’m not super social, so I would probably stay with my friends instead of being super awkward and embarrassing myself.

QUESTION 2:You’ve got an opportunity to spend a few hours alone “in your bedroom” with a character from any book you’ve previously read. The character tells you that (s)he would like to lock the door and spend some alone time with you. What book and character is it, and do you decide to enter the room and lock the door, or tell them you aren’t interested?

My recent book crush was Porter from Alex, Approximately. So if I wasn’t married and was quite a bit younger, I would love to hang with him. For friendship with a girl, I would pick Molly from The Upside of Unrequited. But it would be creepy for her to want to lock the door so we could be alone.

QUESTION 3: If you could turn any male character from one of your favorite books into a female character (or change a female into a male) in the book or book series, which one and why?

Willowdeen from Dumplin. I just think it would be a funny reversal to read about a boy entering a beauty pageant to piss off his mom.

QUESTION 4: What blogger currently on your follower’s list (meaning they follow you too) do you admire the most and why?

No real favorites yet. I’m still really new to this, but I’ve found a lot of great bloggers already.

QUESTION 5:If you could change any one decision your favorite book character made, what would it be and why?

Since I just finished Tiger Lily, I would say Pan. I would want them together even though it changes everything.

QUESTION 6:If you could pick 1 character from a book and 1 character from a TV show you watch (that is NOT based on a book) to be in a relationship together, who would you choose, and why?

I don’t watch a ton of TV shows, so I’m not really sure on this one. I do love Jess from New Girl, but I’m not sure who I would put her with. If I think of something, I’ll come back and edit this.

QUESTION 7:It’s your last day on Earth. As you are about to cross that final finish line, a mysterious shadow appears, giving you a choice: (1) You can go move forward to whatever comes next for you [based on your own spiritual or religious beliefs], or (2) you can become a character in a book series and exist permanently doing whatever that author chooses to do with you in the book. Which do you choose, and if it’s option 2, reveal the book and author.

Probably move forward to whatever comes next. I wouldn’t want to live my life dictated by someone else, even a super cool author.

QUESTION 8:If you could steal a pet from someone in any book you’ve read, but had to replace it with a friend’s pet (meaning they wouldn’t ever see their pet again), would you do it? If so, explain the who and why.

Probably not. I’m too nice and wouldn’t want to upset anyone.

QUESTION 9:If you could turn someone from your real life into a character from a book, who from your life, who in the book and why?

I probably can’t answer that unless it was someone with a small role in my life.

QUESTION 10: Post a picture of the cover of a book you read in 2000 and the book you are currently reading now. (Note: if you weren’t alive in 2000, pick the first book you ever read and tell everyone what year it was from).

Does anyone remember what they read in 2000? I most likely read the most recent Ann Rule book though.

Just finished Emma In The Night.

QUESTION 11:Your favorite character (under 18) needs a place to stay for 3 months and asks you if (s)he could stay in your spare room (yes, you have one for the sake of this question). Who is it and what is the reason (s)he needs to stay with you?

Even though I know they need to fight, I would probably say Katherine and August from This Savage Song. I would want to keep them safe.

QUESTION 12: What is your favorite genre and why?

I’m a huge YA reader. Yes, I’m grown, but there is just something about YA that draws me in. I also love the diversity I see that I usually don’t find in as many adult books. For adult books, I like fantasy and thrillers/suspense/crime. Anything that gets my attention quickly and makes me think.

Since I’m still new to blogging, I don’t really know anyone well enough to tag them. But please consider yourself tagged if you want to do this one. Please just let me know (tag me or comment with the link) so I can read your answers, too.

From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a thriller about two missing sisters, a twisted family, and what happens when one girl comes back…

One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn’t add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister’s return might just be the beginning of the crime.

My Thoughts:

Emma In The Night was a suspenseful read. It’s hard to explain too much about the book without giving the story away.

The book is told in alternating chapters. One by Cass, the sister who returns, and the other by Dr. Abby Winter. Abby had a theory three years ago when the girls disappeared. She saw similar things in Mrs. Martin that she saw in her own mother. Narcissistic personality disorder. Mrs. Martin is obsessed with people seeing her as the best at everything, the most beautiful, a perfect mother. So much so that she competes with her own daughters. Abby knows there is something wrong with this family and that there is more to the story Cass is telling her.

Cass tells a story about how she and Emma left together one night and that Emma is still alive and needs to be found. She tells her story over multiple days in bits and pieces to Abby, her family, and the agent on the case.

Wendy Walker tells an interesting tale back and forth in time which makes you wonder what really happened and who is telling the truth. Every time I thought I had it figured out, there was something else that made me second guess myself.

I gave this book four stars on goodreads.

I received a digital copy of this book from netgalley for review. This did not affect my thoughts or review at all.

Standalone Sunday was created by Megan@bookslayerreads. For Standalone Sunday, you pick a standalone book (no series) that you love and share a little about it. If you don’t have any that you have already read, you can share one from your tbr.

The book I’m choosing this week is Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor… Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough…Eleanor.

Park… He knows she’ll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There’s a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises…Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Any Advanced Reading Copy counts as part of this reading challenge; your backlist books count

No blog necessary to participate, but you’ll need to include some form of social media as part of your sign up

Use the #ARCAugust on social media to check-in

I will have to add to this list as I get some more arcs approved (hopefully this week).

The first one I plan to read is a digital copy of The Hollow Girl by Hillary Monahan.

I am waiting on approval for some books and once they are approved, I’ll edit this and add them here. If I don’t get approved for new ones, I’ll add a couple older arcs that I haven’t gotten around to yet.

7/31 Update: Just got approved for Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller, so I’m adding that to my list.

8/3 Got this one approved from Negalley today, so adding it to my list.

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? If you want to make your own post, feel free to use or edit the banner above, and follow the rules below:

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page

Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first

Finally… reveal the book!

If you’re using Twitter, don’t forget to use #FirstLinesFridays!

Adult content warning on mine (swearing).

“People often shit themselves when they die.

Their muscles slack and their souls flutter free and everything else just…slips out. For all their audience’s love of death, the playwrights seldom mention it. When our hero breathes his last in his heroine’s arms, they call no attention to the stain leaking across his tights, or how the stink makes her eyes water as she leans in for her farewell kiss.”

Scroll down to see what book this is from.

Keep going.

A little more.

Still a little more.

One more time.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.